Running for Solidarity

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Welp, I've made the same mistake I always say I'm going to make. I just can't ever seem to make myself sit down and write an entry. Now that the holidays are over and I'm back to the graduate school grind, I seem to always seem to say, "I need to go for a run and then post on my blog...no time now though-I'll do it later..." Obviously, later never seems to be a good time-hence, my lack of posts...

Anyways, there's honestly not much to tell about my running. That's because I haven't been running. There's really no excuse for it except for the fact that it's freezing here and by the time I get home from school, it's pitch-black and frankly, I'm just too lazy. A friend of mine who lives in Alaska, is always posting pictures of her late night runs in the snow and each time I see one, I realize that I have no real excuse for not going for a run. It has gotten out of control y'all...

BUT. I am still planning on running a marathon!

Joe and I have been hiking and walking lately and this week, I am rededicating myself to my running. Joe and I recently bought some bookshelves for the apartment which forced me to clean out all of the shelves in my office so that I could fill up my new shelves :) Today, as I was going through tons of pieces of paper, notebooks, and books, I found my training schedule. It was a sign. I realized that I have been majorly stalling, and it's mostly because I'm scared. I am absolutely terrified to try to go out and run a marathon in 9 months and not be able to do it. I'm terrified that I won't be in good enough shape or that I won't have properly trained and I'll fail.

Obviously I know that the only way to overcome these fears and finish that race is to go outside and take it one run at a time. I need to suck it up and remember why I decided to go on this crazy journey in the first place and especially remember the people for whom I am determined to run 26.2 miles.

Tomorrow is a new day and another opportunity to do something that so many people are unable to do. Run.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

I've done it again...been too lazy/undisciplined to update my blog. I don't know why I can't make myself sit down and do it...probably my ADHD (haha I like to blame everything on my ADHD although that's literally the reason for my issues).

Anyways...

Running. It has been majorly kicking my hiney these days. I don't know what is wrong with me! Every run seems to be a huge struggle for me. It is leaving me feeling so defeated and making my runs even worse.

I have also been ridiculously busy with school--as some of you may know, I'm currently in PA school at Wake Forest--and it has been so hard to get motivated to come home from school and go running when I'm trying to learn everything (literally) about the human body and what goes wrong with it. Four or five weeks back we finished up our second unit of exams and then had a week vacation during which I ran...not once. Pathetic!

However, when we got back to school, I started slowly getting back into gear and did my first race! It was a 5K called Moonlight Madness here in Winston-Salem. My mom came into town to run it with me and my boyfriend Joe also did the race. We had a great time. Since the race was under the harvest moon and started at 8pm, everyone was wearing neon and glow sticks (which I am obsessed with) and the energy was just awesome. The route was really really hard, I mean the entire thing--okay except maybe the first 1/2 mile--was uphill. I don't even know how they managed to accomplish that. We did get to run through Old Salem which was pretty cool and there was a band at the finish line with free pizza and beer (who can say no to that) so it ended up being a pretty good time. I'm just happy I got my first "race" out of the way. My Mom and I ran 10:30 minute miles which wasn't too terrible and Joe ran ahead of us and did something crazy like 7-8 minute miles. I can't even fathom running that quickly.

Since the race, Joe and I have pretty much stayed with running 3+ miles for every run that we've done and it's been okay. I won't lie I have definitely been struggling on my runs and I get extremely frustrated with myself because I started this whole process at the end of April and I feel like I should be much farther along. I'm trying not to judge myself too harshly and remember that my ultimate goal is a marathon and there are DEFINITELY going to be a lot of ups and downs along the way, but it's still pretty damn impressive that I'm doing this at all.

I just keep trying to remember why I wanted to do this in the first place and how amazing it will feel to cross that finish line knowing that there are so many people in the world who are unable to do so.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

For the past couple of weeks, every time I go running--maybe 5 minutes into the run--I get a horrible cramp in my right side. It is up underneath my rib cage and is very sharp and it really screws up my breathing. Not cool.

I have no idea why it keeps happening! I drink a TON of water everyday ( I absolutely love water, so it's not even difficult for me to be chugging water all day), so I don't think it's a hydration problem.

I've tried all the little secrets I know:
1. Gatorade/powerade to make sure i'm extra hydrated and also pump up my electrolytes
2. Eating something a bit salty before my runs to pump up my electrolytes
3. Deep breaths where I pause/hold my breath in between breaths to slow my breathing down
4. I've tried taking a breath in every time I plant with my right foot
...basically I've tried every thing I've ever heard and/or think might work. Nothing has and it's really annoying.

Monday, July 22, 2013

is probably what I'm going to say every time I write a new post. Told ya that I'm terrible at keeping up with these things!!

Anyways...it has been a while, and a LOT has happened! Since the last time I posted, my running schedule was a little erratic. My little brother got married May 18, so my running was non-existent that week due to being in Hickory and Asheville running errands and wedding festivities. The week and a half after that I was deathly sick and could barely get out of bed, never mind running the hills of Winston-Salem. Finally, I was up in CT for yet another wedding of a childhood friend of mine and was thankfully getting over whatever bug I had.

Once I got back to WS after Jack's wedding I started back at PA school and finally got back out on the road! Luckily, I wasn't starting from square one, so it wasn't too painful to get my butt back in gear. I had some absolutely great runs, getting 4 miles in at times and running 10 and sub 10 minute miles (don't hate--for me, that is like super sonic speed).

Unfortunately, last week wasn't my best week of running. I definitely hit the wall on a couple of runs for reasons completely unknown to me. It has been ridiculously humid here and has rained almost every day for the past 3 weeks--obnoxious--and in the first couple of tries last week my legs and lungs just wouldn't go. So Joe and I did a lot of walking, but that's okay--I'm not judging myself for not being able to have fabulous experiences every time I go out for a run. Especially since I ended things on a really good note.

Some of you may have seen the Facebook status that I posted about the Rolling Stone Magazine cover. I had a very solid, albeit slow 4 mile run (finally!!), but was very determined not to stop running. I was very frustrated by the fact that our media continues to give the wrong (in my opinion) people celebrity-like attention. I do NOT want to see this guy connected to the Boston Marathon bombings on the cover of anything. He does not deserve to have his face there. There are SO many other people from that event and who have stepped up since then that I want to see on the cover of magazines, in a human interest piece on TV, or on the news page of my search engine. Those are the people who truly deserve the attention.

I'm not saying that I don't think we shouldn't be asking ourselves why things like this happen, what's the thought behind these horrific incidences, and what (if anything) could we possibly do to foresee and prevent these tragedies. What I'm saying is, I don't want our media to present these incidences from the perspective they constantly use. I get it. It's human nature to want to understand and get to the bottom of this situation by looking back at these people's lives to be able to identify something in their past. Anything. That could make it all make sense.

Believe me. I'm going to be a Physician Assistant. My goal in life is to get to the diagnosis. Cure the patient. For that to happen I'm constantly searching and asking, "Why? Why did this happen? Why did this patient present like this? Where's the connection? How do I find it and fix it?" Sometimes I'll never know the answer, sometimes I will. I just refuse to give the causative agent the all the attention. Instead, I give my patient the attention, it's his or her life that is being affected.

Who knows if that analogy, metaphor--whatever it is in this case--even makes sense. I just feel that it is an injustice and a disservice to all those who were forever changed by that event to place an individual, connected to causing that tragedy, on the cover of a magazine with an interview that discusses "how a popular, promising young student...became a monster." Because frankly, I do not give a damn how popular or promising this kid was--I care about how popular and promising Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, and Martin Richard were before they were murdered. Can they or any of the other people who were injured or traumatized or affected in any way PLEASE be on the cover of magazines or in human interest stories on the news or on my search engine news page? PLEASE? I promise all you media people, your ratings (as far as I am concerned) will be better, at least by 1 person, because I'll actually want to watch and support your station.

Okay. I promise I'm done with my rant and off my soapbox...for now. I don't want to offend anyone, but this is the reason I'm training to run a marathon, after all...

Friday, May 10, 2013

As I previously warned, keeping up with diaries was never my strong suit which is why I probably should have written a post last week, but didn't…oops-what can I say? I'm lazy…

Okay week 2 of training is done and week 3 is almost done!! I am proud to say that I have been sticking to my schedule except for this past Saturday when my boyfriend Joe was in town. We didn't do a 20 min run/walk, but we ran a million and one errands and were on our feet all day, so I considered it a success.

Week 2 consisted of 20 minutes of running/walking, and since I felt I was a little farther ahead of that I decided to do 20 minutes of running with walking intermixed. I did a 5 min warm up walk, then intervals consisting of: 4 min run + 1 minute of walking X 5 (does that make sense?) and finished up with a 5 minute walk cool down. It was pretty chilly all last week, but I actually prefer to run in cold weather--your muscles are more efficient and you actually can run faster because of that-plus I wasn't sweating my face off, hah! Each run was great, I kept it very dynamic running up as many hills as I could find around here and walking on the flat parts if the timing was right. Since I'm only running in short bursts right now, in order to get back into running shape, I figured I'd make it a little challenging so that I really got the most out of my cardio and kept my heart rate elevated. Right now my training days are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday with Tuesday, Friday as optional rest or cross training days and Sunday as a rest day.

I got a really good cross train/yoga session in that was called stretch and restoration (i think?) and was amazing. I didn't even realize how tight all my muscles were (because I am very diligent about stretching before and after I exercise) until I got into that class and basically was twisting myself into various pretzel positions and realizing how tight not only my legs and hip flexors, but also my back, shoulders, neck, etc. This lady turned me into a human rubber band for 2 hours. It was amazing. If anyone is ever in Hickory, NC--hit up Yoga with an Edge! Great yoga studio and very reasonably priced!

Week 3 consisted of 25 minutes of running/walking so I upped my ante just by 1 minute:
5 min warm up walk, 5 min run + 1 min walk X 5, 5 min cool down--today is a rest day and I'm heading to Hickory (my hometown) in a few minutes to travel to Greenville, SC with some of my family for the wedding of some dear friends of ours- Taylor and Gypsy! I'm packing my tennis shoes and my mom and I plan to run all over Greenville Saturday morning before we have to get ready for the festivities. Greenville is a beautiful little city that reminds me of Winston-Salem a bit--amazing food scene, shopping, parks, theater, etc. I'm excited to get back there to visit for the weekend and explore some more with Mom!

This week 3 I didn't feel great on my runs--my legs felt like blocks of lead! Just a sign I need to stretch even more and drink lots and lots more water. I was talking to Joe (my aforementioned bf) about it and how when I start to feel tired or out of breath or my legs hurt/feel like lead I just remind myself about the people who will never be able to run again, whether out of fear or disability resulting from the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. I don't want to focus on the negative, that's not what I mean--I just want to think about those people and push myself because, after all, they're the reason I've gotten myself into this craziness! I'm running for them, and thinking about that is such a positive motivation :)

Alright, must jet-excited to celebrate the marriage of two friends with tons more friends this weekend :)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Heyyo! Glad to pop back in here and let you guys know how my first week of training went!

It was an absolutely beautiful week to get outside and start running (along with a LOT of walking ;))! It was in the high 60s low 70s all week and there was an amazing breeze, so I really was happy to get outside and soak up some vitamin D. Plus, it was a great excuse to do a little exploring!

I moved to Winston-Salem, NC last June (wow, it's almost been a year-crazy how time flies) and started school at Wake Forest School of Medicine getting my masters in Physician Assistant studies. I was raised in NC, not too far down the road from WS, but besides several school trips to Old Salem (totally recommend making a trip here and enjoying Old Salem and especially the Moravian cookies, yummy!) and touring Wake Forest for college, I never really "hung out" up here. Embarrassingly enough, since I've lived here almost a year, I haven't really gotten to know the little city outside of my daily routines. Running/walking has been a great way to look around a little bit and take in this cute town. There are so many parks around, sidewalks everywhere which I love, and cute little shops selling this and that so close to where I live. I absolutely love it here. It's a great scene for a new, young family, obviously for students, and the older generation who want to settle somewhere with a moderate climate and just enough to do for all those in between.

Okay, anyways back to running. This week was great, I could hardly hold myself back from just jumping into running, but I really want to take this seriously and not burn myself out before I really get back into shape, so I've been sticking to my schedules--probably more diligently (so far) than I've ever behaved in my life. I'm a very go-with-the-flow kind of person who is very willing to adapt or even completely abandon a plan if necessary. So I stuck to my plan and it was great--lots of walking and medium amounts of running. It's amazing how quickly you can get out of "running shape" when you don't do it regularly. I've always been a sporadic kind of runner.

I was talking to my best friend Cody the other day, who has a blog that you should check out: OneHungryRunner. She's a wonderful writer and is always including delicious and easy food to make. Anyways, she was like, "you're training for a marathon!?" (She knows how unattached to running i've always been, we've been friends since we were 2!) As I mentioned before about my go with the flow, hippyish personality, I'm much more into exercise that gets you into shape, but is simultaneously relaxing--herein lies my absolute love for Yoga. I also love to ride bikes, takes me back to my childhood of summer vacations at the beach, renting bikes and riding them all over the beach and Hilton Head Island. I've always been more excited to go to the gym for a spin class or to jump on the stationary bike or head to yoga classes then lace up my shoes and hit the pavement. Cody is a ridiculous runner. She can run for miles and do it really fast. She played field hockey in high school and used to run sub-6 minute miles--whattttt?? I ran with her ONCE in college and she was running circles around me, literally. Never did that again. She's also run several marathons already at the ripe old age of 25! So obviously when she heard about my new plan to run 26.2 miles, she wanted to check in with me to get the scoop, making sure I had realistic goals and give me some awesome tips and tricks, and of course to yell, "WOOO YES! I KNEW I'D GET YOU--WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD OF RUNNING!" We've always been each others cheerleaders and within 5 minutes of talking to her about why I really wanted to do this, she was jumping right in and offering to run any and all races with me and help me train, even though she lives in SC.

I know it's people like her, that are going to get me through the really tough and long road ahead, but I'm still so excited about it! The more I talk about it with people, the more passionate I feel about accomplishing this huge goal. Even though none of the people who were at the Boston Marathon and were injured or just absolutely freaked out will probably ever know who I am or what I'm doing, it doesn't matter. Maybe why I'm running this will never grab the attention of anyone important or start a movement, but again-it doesn't matter. It's already changing my life and sometimes it only takes one person to make a difference.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

So. I think I've tried to start a blog a few times and it's been the same story with each entry. I'm really excited about it for the first day and then I never post again. Just like when I was a little girl and had...how-many-ever-diaries and maybe wrote in the first page of each diary. Yikes.

I decided to start this blog because I really need support and who better to get support from then a bunch of people you don't know hanging out there somewhere in cyberland. I'm not a fabulous writer, I'll probably make a million and one grammatical errors and I probably won't be very funny. But maybe that will interest some of you out there. Who knows.

This is why I need support. I've decided to train for a marathon (holy crap).

I woke up the day after the horrific events of the Boston Marathon bombings and felt inspired. Well, actually I felt really pissed off and thought, "WTF. This is complete bullshit! All those innocent people who were out there not for fame or fortune or any other reason than to accomplish something for themselves or even in some cases for their children who are paralyzed (I saw one guy who is an older gentleman who pushes his son the whole way so that they can "run" together--amazing) or for a friend who is fighting cancer, etc. These people are just running. For fun, no less!" What also pissed me off is that the bombs weren't in the middle of the course, but among the thousands and thousands of people who go out to support these people as they run. They stand there for 2 (for the fast people), 3, 4, 5, or even 6 hours! However long it takes every last person to cross that finish line. They cheer for people they've never met and will probably never have the chance to meet as they take on the long, difficult task of running 26.2 miles straight--just to do it--to maybe get a medal at the end. These people are amazing .

My mother is an amazing runner! She has been running since she was about 23 years old and has done a few marathons, several half-marathons, even more 10Ks and 5Ks. Last year, she participated in her first ever IronMan up in Mont Tremblant, Canada. All she wanted to do was finish it, and she did! When I woke up on April 16, I was thinking about her. How devastated I would have been if she had gone through all of that training, the injuries, the milestones accomplished, the sweat, tears, and everything in between for some person-not even worthy of our concern-to do something so senseless and keep her from reaching her goal of finishing. Even worse, to possibly injure her or my father who was waiting for her all day--15 hours!!--for her to cross that finish line.

So I'm running for some freakin solidarity. For all those people who were running that day and for those who were just supporting. Because I REFUSE to be scared to go outside of my house and RUN for crying-out-loud!!!! I refuse to allow this incident to scare me from doing anything. I refuse to allow this act of terrorism keep me from being free. Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone else, and maybe it does. Regardless, I'm training for a marathon and I need help!

I have never ever ever ever wanted to run a marathon. I've never had the desire to run anything longer than 3 miles. Honestly, I never had the desire to run 3 miles, but I thought, "Hey. It's kinda healthy. My mom runs all the time. So does Andrew (one of my 4 brothers). I guess I should get my act together." In the last several months I have not been running (oops!), so this training is going to be like "start[ing] from the very beginning" as Julie Andrews so eloquently sang it.

Yesterday was "Day 1," I walked for 15 min, ran for 10, and walked for 15 min more. I'm blending 2 training schedule's that I found here (the 26-week schedule) and here. I'm a littler farther ahead of the first link I posted, but not quite ready for the second link, so for the first 2-3 weeks I'm going to be going with what I did yesterday, except adding a little more running and a little less walking every other training day. So today is a rest day, but I'm going to go out for a 30 minute walk just for good measure. Once I get past these first 3 weeks, I'm signing up for a 5K as my first "mile marker" in my training program--I'm looking for something in July or August. Then, I'll find a 10K, then half, and then a marathon!

I would love any and all advice and any and all prayers! I know this is going to be a long, tough road, but I'm really excited about it! Stay tuned--I'll try to keep up with this blog thing and let you know how it's going!